The Return of Thrift: How the Collapse of the Middle Class Welfare State Will Reawaken Values in America

by Phillip Longman

An award-winning journalist explains how the growth in the culture of entitlement has led to a government insolvency, lack of family and individual responsibility, and economic decline that will eventually force Americans to embrace abandoned personal and community virtues. 20,000 first printing.

Genres: Economics

Hardcover

First published April 3, 1996

Reviews

[Glenn Murphy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a bit dated (published in 1996), but it was still an interesting read. Many of Longman's gloom and doom predictions have not come to pass yet, but his concern about demographic pressures on government social programs is not unfounded. His "solutions" would be a tough sell to most people no matter when he wrote it. He takes it as a given that Social Security, Medicare, government and military pensions, etc. will have to end, and that everyone will have to plan and save for their own retirement and healthcare. But then he runs through the numbers for how much more or less average people would need to save to do this, and admits that it won't be possible for large numbers of people. He also admits that, even if it was desirable, working until you die is often not an option due to the tendency of employers to lay off older and higher paid workers. One thing I think he was right about is that we are starting to see a return to extended families living together out of necessity. I think this book does a good job of analyzing a specific problem, but it is only one part of a bigger picture, and Longman's simplistic idea that returning to "middle class values" will solve all of our problems and lead to renewed prosperity lacks any useful details on how it would actually work.

[Don · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book 20 years ago, but I needed to refer to it because of a project I am working on. Probably too dated for today's audiences.